homelessness
Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether cities can ban homeless people from sleeping outside, as the country grapples with increasing rates of Americans living on the streets and a lack of shelter beds. The case centers around regulations in the city of Grants Pass, in the western state of Oregon, which banned camping or using any kind of bedding on public property after its public parks became filled with tents, blankets and cardboard. Those breaking the rules face hundred-dollar fines and possible prison sentences for repeat offenders. Homeless advocates hav...
AFP
Portland (AFP) - It's 9 am on a weekday, and real estate employee Erica Hetfeld has just watched paramedics try to save the life of a man who has overdosed on the streets of Portland. "This is a tragedy," she says as three disheveled men smoke fentanyl near her office in a city that was once a byword for laid-back livability. Portland is a Democratic Party stronghold, a liberal sentinel in Oregon on the US West Coast that for years stood for social justice, empathy and tolerance. But an experiment in decriminalizing drugs and a hands-off approach to policing has left some bemoaning the fate o...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - When Carlos Schmidt beds down on the hard streets of Los Angeles, he has nothing but a backpack and an old blanket, like thousands of other homeless people in one of the richest cities in the world's richest country. "At nighttime, I just find somewhere quiet like a park or a bus bench, where there's not a lot of chaos," the 37-year-old told AFP. "And I'll try to rest up right there for as long as I can." Schmidt is one of some 75,500 people living on the streets of Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs, according to a January survey. The figure is up 70 percent since 2015,...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - A state of emergency over spiraling levels of homelessness was declared in Los Angeles on Monday as the new mayor pledged a "seismic shift" for one of the most intractable problems in America's second biggest city. Tens of thousands of people sleep rough on Los Angeles streets every night, in an epidemic that shocks many visitors to one of the wealthiest urban areas on the planet. Mental health problems and substance abuse issues are rife among the population, whose tents and rusting RVs scar the city. Mayor Karen Bass, who was sworn into office Sunday, used her first full ...
AFP
New York (AFP) - Sekou Salaam knows all too well the dangers of living on New York's streets. Homeless for six months, he says he's been beaten with a metal pipe and repeatedly threatened with knives. "It's real out here. You can get hurt, you can get killed," the 55-year-old told AFP, after eating a free lunch at the Bowery Mission, which helps poor and hungry New Yorkers, in Lower Manhattan. The dangers facing America's homeless were highlighted earlier this month when a man murdered two homeless men and wounded three others during a string of shootings in New York and Washington. Activists ...
AFP
San Francisco (AFP) - American philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity and dozens of its US affiliates, the homebuilding non-governmental organization said Tuesday. Scott is among the billionaires who have signed a pledge to give away the majority of their wealth to charity. "Habitat works to break down barriers and bring people together -- to tear down obstacles and build a world where everyone, no matter who we are or where we come from, has a decent place to live," Habitat for Humanity International chief...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - Once a year, Hollywood hosts the Oscars -- but every night hundreds of homeless people sleep on and around the Los Angeles neighborhood's star-lined streets. Those two starkly contrasting worlds are set to collide next month when the directors of "Lead Me Home," a nominated film on the United States' homeless crisis, plan to invite their subjects onto the Oscars' red carpet as their guests. "Hopefully, on the day of the ceremony we can shine a little bit of a light on that juxtaposition, and raise awareness of the humanity that's right across the street, literally, and tha...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - In a parking lot in Los Angeles, a village of miniature prefab houses has sprung up, one of several sites in America's second-largest city where so-called "tiny homes" are being put up to help the homeless get back on their feet. The City of Angels has a large homeless population, second only to New York. Tens of thousands live rough -- their tents, and their distress, are plain for any resident or visitor to see. In the Tarzana neighborhood, 76 tiny homes paid for by the city have been erected. Each is 64 square feet (six square meters), and is equipped with two beds and s...
AFP
Venice (United States) (AFP) - Ah yes, Venice Beach in California: synonymous with sun, surf, palm trees and, now, homeless people. As many as 200 tents line the oceanfront in this Los Angeles-area town that for decades has been a lure for surfers and tourists. The area is a chaotic jumble of any material that can create shelter, and of waste and detritus, amid appalling hygiene conditions. The smell of urine competes with that of suntan lotion. "I didn't expect to see so many homeless people here in Venice. Already in Hollywood a few days ago, I was a bit surprised, but here, all these tents ...
AFP
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